The Third Olympic Games

This year, the eyes of the world's sports fans have been on Paris, with the Summer Olympics concluding on 11 August and the Paralympics on 8 September. But did you know there is a third international sporting event that is also held every four years? I am talking about the Special Olympics World Games.

According to the Special Olympics (SO) organisation, 'Special Olympics is a global movement of people creating a new world of inclusion and community, where every single person is accepted and welcomed, regardless of ability or disability.' It was founded in the 1960s by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who grew up with a sister with a learning disability (the term commonly used in the UK for 'intellectual disability'). Kennedy Shriver believed that

if people with learning disabilities were given the same opportunities and experiences as everyone else, they could accomplish far more than anyone ever thought possible – a particularly radical point of view at the time, when many people with learning disabilities were confined to institutions (and, in the UK, not legally entitled to education). The SO had a modest start: a summer day camp in 1962. Six years later, in 1968, the first SO Games were held in Chicago. Participation grew steadily till the 2023 Special Olympics World Games (SOWG) in Berlin.

Inclusion: introducing the interpreter

Inclusion is a key word for the SO. Translation and interpreting are part and parcel of that, and managing them during the World Games is a colossal task, not least because it has to consider the 'plain' or 'easy' versions of languages, too. Daniela Eichmeyer-Hell handled that task with dedication, efficiency and much stamina.

A year on, Daniela reflects on this very special assignment. 

M: Could you talk to me about your background?
D: I studied at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna, and at the University of Innsbruck, and then worked for more than 20 years in international business.

From 1999 on, I lived and worked in South America for 13 years, and during that period I completed a master's in quality management before I decided to do a master's in conference interpreting (German, Spanish, English, French) in Germany, which I completed in 2014. At the same time, I undertook certified training for speech-to-text interpreting (STTI) and later on, in 2018, I also passed the state examination for STTI. Today, I work as a conference interpreter, speech-to-text interpreter, university and vocational training lecturer, and as a researcher in the field of interpreting studies.

M: In terms of language access, how different was the SOWG in Berlin last year compared with previous events?
D: Berlin 2023 was the most accessible SOWG ever! For the first time, more languages than just the local one and English were provided. To give you some numbers: there were 101 interpreting assignments between 10 and 25 June, and 1,500 hours of interpreting – all provided by a team of 85 professional interpreters while respecting the interpreters' code of ethics. An important novelty was speech-to-text interpreting for those who did not understand either of the interpreted languages but were able to read an English live text.

M: How were you chosen to lead Language Services? What were you looking for in the translators and interpreters you wanted to work with, and how did you recruit them?

D: I was recommended to the director of Constituent Services, and after one or two Zoom talks we had an agreement. When I joined the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the SOWG Berlin 2023, an agency for translation had already been selected, so it was 'only' the interpreting that had to be set up. As the SOWG had never had that kind or extent of language service before, the most important first step was identifying which languages and communication modalities to include in the range of services we were providing. We eventually settled on the official SO languages (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Russian); German; German Sign Language; Easy German; Plain Language English; International Sign; and speech-to-text interpreting both intralingually (spoken English into English live text) and interlingually (English spoken language into German live text and German spoken language into English live text).

When it came to selecting the team, I looked for experienced interpreters – this was an assignment where the topic and the set-up would be new and unfamiliar for everybody. I had my own contacts, and also asked my fellow conference interpreters for recommendations for interpreters working in languages I had not worked with, such as Arabic. I contacted the interpreters directly by email and conducted online interviews. As far as possible,

I tried to put together teams where interpreters already knew each other and had had good experiences of working together. That turned out well as there were no personal conflicts – despite the sometimes stressful and challenging conditions.

Managing a massive operation

M: What kind of content had to be translated and interpreted?
D: The translation agency and other staff translated a huge number of documents – mainly technical manuals on the sports disciplines and competitions, but also other information, for instance relating to the delegations or to the volunteers' handbook.

Our aim was to enable communication and offer real-time access to information to people with and without disabilities, with and without good language skills

The really big part was interpreting. Our aim was to enable communication and offer real-time access to information to everybody: people with and without disabilities, with and without good language skills. The whole process started in August 2021 with the regular delegations' webinars. These took place every three weeks – one in the morning and one in the afternoon to cover the different time zones – and involved all kinds of information to prepare the delegations for the SOWG. After each webinar, the participants had access to the post-edited live text produced by the speech-to-text interpreters during the webinars. So they were able to reread any information after the very dense webinars – packed with content of different kinds.

In June 2022, we held the Special Olympics National Games as test games for the World Games. There were 13 delegations invited from all over the world and we provided interpretation for 'only' English; German; Easy German; Plain Language English; Speech-to-text Interpreting; and German Sign Language.

Then there were other meetings held with Special Olympics International (SOI), the heads of delegations during on-site visits, and other constituent groups. And on top of that there was the job of interpreting the onboarding and training of around 20,000 volunteers from all over the world. 

When it came to the World Games in June 2023, we had a huge number of interpreting assignments, working across the full range of languages, language varieties, and modalities. There were several congresses and summits; meetings of the heads of delegation; head coach technical meetings; daily press conferences; the opening and closing ceremonies; all kinds of emergencies; many official receptions with dignitaries, politicians, ambassadors; and more. Some sports competitions offered German Sign Language for the spectators. There was also a reception for the athletes' families to be interpreted, the athletes' party, the SO festival during the Games, the torch run before and up to the opening ceremony, sponsors' events...

Another very important service was the language services hotline. This was a service provided by conference interpreters in seven languages. Delegations could call the hotline from early in the morning until late at night and – wherever necessary – the relevant professionals could then contact the delegation services team.

M: How did you manage this massive operation?
D: First of all, turning nights into days. And by drawing on my management and logistics experience, combined of course with my experience of acting as a conference interpreter myself. To make matters more complicated, the very limited budget meant we weren't able to have a team the size we really needed.

So, for the first eight months I worked on my own, and then I was joined by my great colleague Benjamin Gross (part-time until the beginning of the SOWG!), who took over translation matters and organising the language volunteers, and supported me wherever possible. All in all, it was a Herculean task: selecting and hiring the interpreters; negotiating fees (with the LOC and the interpreters); getting the interpreting requirements and prep material in time; constant contact and exchanges with almost all the divisions of the LOC, as well as with external agencies and providers; contact with

SOI; briefing and assigning the interpreters; receiving and checking their invoices before sending them to the finance department for payment; organising an appropriate working environment for the interpreters; and selecting, setting up and managing a terminology tool. And that is just the biggest tasks.

M: Would you do it again? And if so, what would you do differently?

D: What would I do differently? I would ask for a bigger team – and, most importantly, I would improve the timing of my requests concerning what we needed and when we needed it. But yes,

I would definitely do it again.